 |
|
 |
|
Childhood at Brindabella - Miles
Franklin
Richmond Imprint ISBN 1 920688 11 0
AU$19.95
Miles Franklin wrote this autobiography
in 1952-3, but it wasn't published until after her death
in 1954. She wrote it in response to a suggestion from
Pixie O'Harris that she write for children, but Franklin
decided she wanted to describe her own childhood. It
is a story of an idyllic time, spent in the hills of
Brindabella near present-day Canberra, and full of sunshine,
sweet ripe fruit and interesting relations. A gentle
antidote to the trauma of much childhood autobiography,
Childhood at Brindabella recaptures brilliantly
the age of innocence and joy, and is told with the flair
of a distinguished storyteller.
Miles Franklin (1879-1954) spent her
first ten years at Brindabella, near Canberra, before
the family moved to a property near Goulburn, the setting
for her autobiographical novel, My Brilliant Career.
She was a feminist and a socialist, working in America
with Alice Henry in the National Women's Trade Union
League. She wrote many of her novels under the pseudonym
'Brent of Bin Bin'. My Career Goes Bung,
the sequel to My Brilliant Career, was
rejected for many years because it was considered too
audacious.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Art and Australia - Margaret Preston
Richmond Imprint ISBN
AU$29.95
 A
lively, often surprising, always individual collection
of articles and essays by renowned artist, Margaret
Preston. Selected from the pages of the magazines
Woman's World and Art in Australia
by Elizabeth Butel (author of Margaret Preston
(ETT Imprint, 1995) , these articles have not been previously
collected together, and in this form they provide a
very useful summary of the changing perceptions of modernism
and Australian art during the middle years of this century.
Articles on the use of Aboriginal design in art and
pioneer women artists are complemented by Preston's
engaging travel writing.
The characteristically jaunty, irreverent
style of Margaret Preston's opinions about art and life,
as expressed in this collection of writings, provides
a fascinating background for the appreciation of her
work.  She
puts into context the battles that were being fought
for modernism. She also takes us on a journey through
Australia; seen through the eyes of this energetic woman,
the Australian landscape comes alive. With an introduction
by Elizabeth Butel and 25 woodcuts by the author.
Margaret Preston, Australia's foremost
woman painter between the wars, sent a series of shock-waves
through Sydney art circles with her spirited journalism
during a career that spanned seventy years. Sydney Ure
Smith called her the 'natural enemy of the dull'. She
was constantly exploring new styles, and advocated a
national art that would learn from the aesthetic of
Australian Aborigines.
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
The Little Hotel - Christina Stead
Richmond Imprint ISBN 1 920688 13 7
208pp AU$19.95
 The
Hotel Swiss-Touring is the refuge for a group of cosmopolitan
characters who come together in Switzerland after the
Second World War. Their object is to conceal themselves
from money-hungry governments and hostile master races.
But their common purpose doesn't prevent a microcosm
of jealousies, spitefulness, vindictiveness and mistrust
from developing among the small group, all under the
relentless eye of Madame Bonnard. A new introduction
by Margaret Harris, Stead's Literary Executor, puts
The Little Hotel into the perspective
of all her work, and discusses the themes of the book
and how they relate to Stead's life and times.
'Christina Stead has assembled a crew
as sad, funny and perverse as any ever gathered together
in the name of art.' Time Magazine
"Stead is above all else an enthusiast for living,
monstrous and ridiculous as human vanity can make it,
and she refuses to let her characters admit defeat.'
Times Literary Supplement
Christina Stead was born in New South
Wales in 1902 and went to Sydney High School and Sydney
University's Teachers' Training College. She went to
London in 1928, married the economist William Blake,
and went to the USA with him. Much of her life is recounted
in her novels, including Seven Poor Men of Sydney,
The Man Who Loved Children and For
Love Alone. The Little Hotel was first published
in 1947. Christina Stead died in Sydney in 1983.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Jonah - Louis Stone
Richmond Imprint ISBN 1 920688 10 2
248pp AU$24.95
'Jonah' is Joe Jones, a man whose drive
and single-mindedness take him from the streets of slum
Sydney as part of a larrikin gang to success in business.
'Striking naturalistic descriptions of place and incident,
authentic dialogue and a well-realised array of characters...
Jonah is a striking achievement.' Oxford Companion
to Australian Literature
Not just about larrikinism but about
Joe, deformed, an outcast, and eventually a successful
business man -- in short, quintessentially Australian.
Set in the slums of Sydney -- with naturalistic descriptions
of Redfern, Alexandria and Waterloo -- in the early
years of the twentieth century, Jonah is a 'cinematic'
novel. Dorothy Green's introduction is a useful bonus
to this lively Sydney novel.
Stone was born in Leicester in England
in 1871 and came to Australia when he was fourteen.
He taught at Coogee State School and then Sydney Boys'
High. Norman Lindsay described him as 'tall, lank and
dyspeptic...with tragically depressed eyes and a fastidiously
tormented mind'. He was the classic deracine -- out
of his milieu and thrown into the streets of a hostile
city to find himself. And out of that experience came
Jonah.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our Authors
|
|
